Ontology and XML-based Specifications for Collaborative B2B Relationships

Abstract

A collaborative B2B relationship implies jointly executing business processes. This relationship demands a complete access to available information and knowledge to support decision-making activities between trading partners. To support information interchange between enterprises in collaborative B2B e- commerce there are some XML-based standards technologies, like RosettaNet, ebXML and OAGIS. However, XML does not express semantics by itself. So, these standards only provide an infrastructure to support the information interchange. They are suitable to integrate information but not to support decision-making activities where a common understanding of the information is needed. In this paper we analyze the integration of these standards with ontology to describe the meaning of the information and knowledge interchanged between trading partners to jointly execute business processes. Furthermore, we define the main components of an ontology development environment to support the entire ontology lifecycle.